Ads outnumber golf shots for much of live coverage

USGA CEO Mike Whan spoke Wednesday at the U.S. Open about how his organization worked with NBC to reduce the number of ads that will be shown in this year’s coverage, with plans to cut ads by 30 percent this week.

So … how is that going midway through Round 1 of the Open?

Coverage from Los Angeles Country Club began Thursday on Peacock, then switched to USA Network – which is owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming – for most of the afternoon. Listening in from the home office, it was clear there were a lot of commercials. So out came the stop watch.

In the first 12 minutes and 45 seconds of coverage starting at 2 p.m. ET, USA Network showed 15 commercials. That was compared to just 11 golf shots. The network also showed a one-minute, in-broadcast promotion for the USGA, featuring Whan. In all, that was six minutes of commercials (both full-screen and split-screen with the playing-through feature), one minute of promotion and 5 minutes and 45 seconds of actual full-screen golf coverage.

Wanting to make sure that wasn’t an anomaly, the same procedure was repeated starting at 3 p.m., using an even longer window. In the first 24 minutes of coverage starting at 3 p.m., coverage included 20 commercials (in both full-screen and split-screen formats) and 23 full-screen golf shots. That equated to 9 minutes of ads in either format and 15 minutes of full golf coverage.

The ads ran the spectrum, from golf equipment makers to MTV.

Combining those opening coverage windows for the prime hours of 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., that meant there were a total of 34 golf shots shown against 35 commercials.

The longest continuous uninterrupted window showed 15 shots in a row (starting about 3:13 p.m.). Those 15 shots were surrounded by 13 ads in either format divided on either side of the full-screen golf coverage.

The shortest full-screen golf window was just five uninterrupted golf shots, starting at 2:03 p.m. Those five shots were preceded by seven ads and were followed by the 1-minute USGA promotion. Then came six more full-screen golf shots, then eight more ads.